1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a comprehensive organizational system for managing medical records for individual use and to a method for managing multiple medications which may be an integral part of the comprehensive system.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Failure to take medications according to prescription instructions is a common reason for a bad medical outcome. Sometimes patient non-compliance results from a misunderstanding of the prescription instructions. For example, the prescription label may say “Take one capsule every six hours” and the patient assumes, incorrectly, that this does not include the hours during sleep.
More often, failure to take medications according to the prescription instructions results from mistakes. With elderly patients having one or more chronic illnesses (such as diabetes and congestive heart failure), the patient may have multiple medications, each medication having its own timetable and dosage, and each with accompanying instructions and warnings. The wrong medication may be given at the wrong time, or an improper dosage may be given or the medication may be omitted completely because the prescription container has been mislaid. Further, particularly among elderly patients, the timing and dosage of medications may be subject to frequent change, even from day to day.
Commonly, it is a family member, friend or other caregiver who has the responsibility of organizing and dispensing medications on a daily basis for elderly or chronically ill patients. The responsibility is stressful and the possibility for mistake is compounded when there is more than one caregiver. Another problem occurs when an ambulance is called to the home of a chronically ill person. If the caregiver is not present, often no person in the home knows or remembers the medication regime. Pill bottles may be gathered up and taken along with the patient to the hospital. It is difficult in an emergency situation to treat the patient when the treating physician has no idea what medication has been taken and what medication has not.
The need to manage the dispensation of multiple medications has been recognized. Various devices have been provided to make it easier to organize multiple medications. One common device is in the form of a container having different compartments arranged in columns, one for each day of the week, each column having three or four rows. The device, however, does not prevent giving the wrong medication at the wrong time, or giving an improper dosage or forgetting to give a medication as the caregiver must interpret the instructions on the prescription label each time the device is filled. In addition, the system provides no information in an emergency situation as to what medication has been taken and what medication has not when the pill bottles in the home are gathered up and taken along with the patient.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,261,702 proposes a system that includes a wall chart with the names of the medications to be taken by the patient along with times of day that the medications are to be taken. A symbol having a distinctive shape such as a circle, square, triangle and the like is placed by the name of the medication on the chart and on the prescription container. The chart may be used in combination with a pill organizer as described above, but the system does not prevent giving the medication at the wrong time or giving an improper dosage as the caregiver must interpret the instructions on the chart each time the device is filled. The chart merely associates the names of the medications with the prescription containers by symbols, rather than by pharmaceutical names. When a drug is suspended, the system described in the '702 patent calls for drawing a line through the entry on the chart. The wall chart is likely to be hung near the place that the caregiver fills the patient's medication tray and in an emergency situation may not be taken along with the patient, leaving the treating physician in the dark as to what medications the patient is taking.